On 25 February 2015, an image of a striped dress that appeared to be white and gold in color to some viewers, but blue and black to others, began to circulate on the Tumblr social blogging network. As the popularity of the image increased, the debate over what it actually displayed intensified — according to an informal poll, roughly a quarter of the people who viewed the image believed the dress to be blue and black, while three quarters believed it was clearly white and gold:
The picture was initially posted to Tumblr by a 21-year-old singer named Caitlin McNeill, who lives on the tiny Scottish island of Colonsay and noted that the dress shown in the picture was worn at a friend's wedding by the mother of the bride:
Fortunately for the Internet, there actually is an answer to this color conundrum: The highlighted bit of the dress's darker top stripe reads through an eyedropper tool as hex code #806D48, which is a gold-based tone. However, a lighter portion of the sleeve (described by many as white) reads as hex code #A0A1B9, a heavily blue-tinged color:
On 26 February 2015, a Twitter user tried to claim that the photograph was actually a "sight test" that indicated any given viewer's emotional state. The user did not, however, explain why such a "test" was being administered or what the ultimate purpose (aside from garnering retweets) might be:
Thank you all for taking part in my 'white and gold' 'black and blue' dress experiment. Read on for info. Thanks. pic.twitter.com/44Jb00FAno
— BradTheLadLong (@BradTheLadLong) February 27, 2015
Although the opposite theory (i.e., that colors can influence emotions) has been studied, we turned up no evidence that the theory had been tested in the opposite direction (i.e., that perception of colors can be an indicator of one's emotional state). The Twitter user in question possibly misinterpreted the widespread belief that colors affect emotions in taking advantage of a viral phenomenon.
Ultimately, it's far less likely that the image is a mood diagnostic rather than a mild jape involving the power of suggestion. Or, as the Washington Post noted, "The answer has something to do with science. And eyes. And color and lights and color balances. And Photoshop. And many other matters that over-intellectualize something as delightfully absurd as a color-changing dress. Some things don't need to be explained."
Last updated: 26 February 2015